Books by Bill Marshall

The wind of change had been blowing across the earth's surface for centuries before someone made headlines with the phrase. This wind had been affecting nations, peoples, their attitudes and their ways of thinking; sometimes for the worse, and sometimes, for the better. Perhaps, one might justifiably say that this explains why the human race tends to be caught with its pants down in the matter of development; sometimes very positive, but all too often, far too negative. In every city, there is one area which remains defiantly and stubbornly averse to change or development. One such area in the municipality of Accra is James Town, with Bukom as its centre - the epitome of the black neighbourhood of the old order. Meet Ataa Kojo, who is satisfied to have won a gold tiepin for "twenty-five years of loyal service" to a European trading firm, and his family. At his age, he has not done badly at all. He would be completely satisfied with a modern toilet in his home, but the City Council says he needs a permit to "undertake construction works"… BUKOM was the first novel by Bill Marshall. This novel won the Ghana National Book Award for the young writer in 1979. Over the decades, his writings have been wide and diverse spanning film and television, radio, the press and books. Among his published books are Novels: Brother Man, The Oyster Man, Uncle Blanko's Chair; Plays: Shadows of an Eagle, Stranger to Innocence, Son of Umbele, The Crows and Other Plays, Asana.

A Portuguese slave ship leaves the Elmina Castle with hundreds of African slaves bound for the Americas, but one slave girl is left behind. A traumatic story of Asana and her new environment extol the attributes of the tradition and culture of the people of Edina, both of the spiritual and the mundane. The impact of the slave trade on all concerned is told with anger, love and even humour. In spite of her ordeal, Asana, like the people of Edina, remains strong like the anthill. The Elmina Castle features in a documentary film made by Bill Marshall on Nana Yaa Asantewaa, the legendary queen mother of Ejisu in Ashanti, who was captured by the British colonial masters, who exiled her to Seychelles where she died. This play comes after a four year drought in any artistic work by the author.

The first full-length monograph in English about one of France's most important contemporary filmmakers, locating Andre Techine within historical and cultural contexts that include the Algerian war, contemporary globialisation, and the influence of Roland Barthes, Bertolt Brecht, Ingmar Bergman, William Faulkner and the cinematic French wave.

Introduces the reader to Victor Serge's life and extraordinary novels, locating them amidst debates about revolution, communism, anarchism, literature and representation, and in comparison with his contemporaries. This study demonstrates that the voice of Serge is unified by a notion of dissent - an active dissent far removed from quietism.